


That Offending Red

by dyllpickless



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Angst, Blood, Fluff, Gen, Gender Dysphoria, Good Parent Grace Hargreeves, Hurt/Comfort, Menstruation, Transgender Diego Hargreeves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-09
Updated: 2019-12-09
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:14:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21728869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dyllpickless/pseuds/dyllpickless
Summary: Diego wakes up to an unpleasant surprise, and Grace is the best mom anybody could ask for.
Relationships: Diego Hargreeves & Grace Hargreeves
Comments: 15
Kudos: 136





	That Offending Red

**Author's Note:**

> Please look at the tags!!! Thank you!

For the first few moments of Diego being awake, everything was fine. He was warm and cozy in his bed, happily snuggled under five blankets that provided a nice, comforting weight evenly distributed across his skin. Life was good.

That is, life was good until he was suddenly hit with a wave of excruciating pain, centered in his abdomen. He let out a sharp shout and buckled over, turning onto his side and quickly curling into a tight ball to try and do  _ anything _ to alleviate the pain, but it was no use. The pain persisted and tears quickly began to prick at the child’s eyes, though he gritted his teeth and refused to let them spill.

He shifted again. At least the feeling of his boxer briefs feeling comforting against— _ Fuck _ . Another wave—this one made entirely of panic—crashed over Diego, almost drowning him.  _ His boxer briefs. His favorite boxer briefs. _ Diego threw all of the covers to the side and quickly scrambled out of bed. It took him a few seconds to get his shaking hands under control enough to pull on a pair of pants before he shot out of his bedroom and barrelled into the nearest bathroom. The instant he turned the lock, Diego scrambled out of his pants and pulled down his underwear.

Red. They were stained red. His favorite pair of boxer briefs, the ones with a pattern of knives that Klaus had surprised him with after a night out on the town, were ruined. Diego quickly stuffed his fist into his mouth to muffle a sob.

He should have known. Diego should have realized. His… (he couldn’t even bring himself to think the word) had gotten regular enough to predict them if he just  _ paid attention _ . Sure, he may have drawn the shortest straw possible and gotten  _ it _ every other week, but at least it was consistently every other week. But no. Instead, as soon as  _ that _ was over, he cheerfully erased the memory that it ever happened from his mind, leaving him to live a week in pure, idiotic bliss. And every time  _ this _ happened, he was shocked, because he forgot that his body even did  _ that. _

Diego was going to be sick. 

He needed to change.

As quick as lightning, he folded up some toilet paper, covered the red stain, and pulled his underwear and his pants back up. He was a boy on a mission: sneak back into his room undetected, and retrieve that pair of underwear he’d hidden at the back of his drawer and never talked about. Then, he had to rush back into the bathroom, make the exchange, and say goodbye to his favorite pair of now-ruined boxer briefs.

Diego threw open the door and raced down the hall, glad that none of his siblings were awake yet. He wasn’t quite sure if he’d be able to deal with them at that moment. As soon as he had the revolting cloth stuffed into his pocket, Diego sprinted back down the hall and once again locked the bathroom door behind him.

He repeated the previous motions of pulling his pants and underwear down, but this time he abandoned his boxer briefs next to the trash can. He pulled on the new, offending pair of  _ not boxer briefs _ with an added adhesive that he refused to acknowledge had a name. Once he was re-dressed, he had only one thing left to do.

Tears once again threatened to spill over onto Diego’s cheeks as he regarded the ruined boxer briefs. His favorite article of clothing. Better than the custom knife sheaths that Mom got him for Christmas that one year when their Father was out of town. A tiny, undignified sob escaped Diego’s gritted teeth as he held them over the trash can.

Apparently that one, lonely noise was too much for Diego to betray, because there was suddenly a knock on the door. Diego waited a second in fearful silence, not wanting to call out any words to reveal he was crying.

“Diego?” a soft voice finally murmured through the white wood. Mom.

All tension left Diego’s body. He dropped the ruined cloth into the trash can and ran over to unlock the bathroom door and let his mom in.

“Hi, Mom,” Diego stuttered, not bothering to hide his movements to scrub away his tears.

“Oh, sweetheart,” she cooed, quietly stepping into the bathroom and closing the door. “What’s wrong, Diego?”

“My favorite boxer briefs.” He started crying again, his stuttering quickly increasing to the point where he was indecipherable and Grace had to remind him to picture the words. “They’re ruined,” he said finally.

“What happened?” she asked, frowning sympathetically and looking around the bathroom for them.

“I got my…  _ It _ started.”

“Oh, baby,” she sighed. After a moment, she knelt down to his level, gently pushing away his hands so she could carefully wipe away his tears and cup his cheeks. “Here. Show me where they are and I’ll see if I can help you.”

Diego obediently ran over to the trash can and retrieved them, placing them in her hands with trembling fingers. He quickly folded his hands behind his back and directed his ashamed eyes to his feet.

There were a few seconds of excruciating silence, where the only sound Diego could hear was the thudding of his own heartbeat in his ears. Then, “I know how we can fix this,” she said softly, making Diego perk up.

“Really?” he asked, only stuttering a little.

She nodded. “Wait here. I’ll be right back.”

And so he waited obediently, because what else could he do? His feet stayed glued to the floor and he focused his gaze on one particular patch of grime in the intersection of the floor tiles so he wouldn’t look at the depressing fabric his mom had left on the counter. When she returned, Diego didn’t even flinch. He just remained still as a statue.

“Diego, baby, watch.”

He joined her at the sink, frowning at what she held in her hand. “Mom, why do you have salt?” he asked, his stutter back with a vengeance.

“Watch,” she repeated, then proceeded to run the boxer briefs under cold water. “There’s a chemical reaction that happens with the blood…” she trailed off, grabbing the salt and pouring some over the stain. “If you rub salt and cold water on it, it’ll bring it right out!” After a few seconds, she proudly showed Diego—who had pushed himself up onto the tips of his toes to get a better look—the now stainless boxer briefs. “Now, we just pop it into the wash and they’ll be good at new!” She smiled down at him. “You shouldn’t do this to nylon cloth, because it’ll be too rough, but it works well on cotton, like what you have.”

Diego was absolutely speechless. Through his wild roller coaster of a barely thirty-minute long morning, he’d never thought this was how it would end up.

Grace laughed quietly and tousled Diego’s short hair. “I’ll leave this salt here in the cabinet under the sink, since we have more downstairs. Now, if this ever happens again, you’ll be able to fix it yourself!”

He grinned and rushed forward, pulling her into a giant hug. “Thank you,” he finally uttered through his tears. “Thank you.”

* * *

It was a hard habit to break. Even when he was almost fifteen years on T (fourteen after his last  _ event _ ), Diego always kept a small jar of salt hidden in his bathroom. And every time he saw it (usually in the rare instances when he was finally cleaning) he would smile to himself. “Thanks, Mom,” he’d whisper quietly, then close the cabinet, and go on with his day.

**Author's Note:**

> Me? Writing a vent fic in thirty minutes? It's more likely than you think.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading <3 Kudos and comments are much appreciated
> 
> Thank you to @seven-misfits on tumblr for beta-ing this ily


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